


Surprising Tony

by helsinkibaby



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Community: 1-million-words, F/M, Gen, Het, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-16
Updated: 2015-05-16
Packaged: 2018-03-30 21:07:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3951784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony Stark is usually the smartest man in the room. Sometimes, though, even he gets blindsided.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Surprising Tony

**Author's Note:**

> For the one million words weekend challenge  
> Theme : team canon/ AU  
> Prompt : did you and your obvious friend just fake propose to get a free meal?

The round of applause from the corner of the restaurant had Pepper looking around curiously. Tony, meanwhile, leapt to his feet. "Someone's gotten engaged."

Pepper's jaw dropped. "Tony, how can you possibly know-"

"Come on, Pepper, a place like this, expensive, candlelight, low music, just made for romance, did I mention ridiculously expensive? What else could applause be for? Let's check it out, give the happy couple a bottle of champagne, courtesy of Stark Industries..."

He was off and moving before Pepper could stop him and she sighed as she placed her napkin down on the table, hoping against hope that he didn't say anything too offensive before she reached him. 

"What the hell?"

She paused for just a moment, thought to herself, "Well, that didn't take long," before continuing on her way but when she reached Tony's side, she understood his surprise. 

Because sitting at the table, hand in hand, were Rhodey and Maria Hill. 

"What is this?" Tony's index finger flicked between the two of them. "Because we heard applause and I was thinking proposal, but its just the two of you so it can't be that..." He tilted his head, clicked his fingers. "Rhodey, did you just fake propose so you could get a free meal? Because, I mean, it's no big deal, I could float you a loan..."

Tony kept on talking, seemingly oblivious to their reactions. Rhodey closed his eyes, lifted his hand from Maria's and squeezed the bridge of his nose with his fingers as he muttered, "Oh my God, this is not happening." Maria's eyes, meanwhile, were narrowing to a laser like glare and her right index finger twitched like she wished she had her sidearm handy. Her left hand, meanwhile, moved up to rest against her forehead, the diamond on her ring finger glinting in the light and Pepper bit her lip, wishing, not for the first time since knowing and loving Tony Stark, that he came with an off switch. Perhaps she'd ask Jarvis to come up with something. 

Meanwhile, the movement of Maria's hand had drawn Tony's attention to the ring. "You brought a prop, oh you're good, that's good, that's..." He leaned closer, inspected the ring. Pepper suddenly found herself hoping he wouldn't try to take Maria's hand; if the look on her face was anything to go by, she'd make good use of her considerable hand to hand combat skills. "You know, if I knew anything about diamonds, and I do, quite a bit, I'd say that's the real deal. Not out of a lucky bag." 

"It is real." Rhodey ground out the words. 

Tony's gaze moved from one to the other. "You two are-"

"Yes." It was Maria's turn to bite out an answer. 

"Did you-?" Tony turned to Pepper, dawning amazement in his face, and she smiled with her lips as she glared with her eyes. The look had the desired effect : Tony actually gulped. 

"Yes, I knew they were dating. Not about this." She was icily polite to Tony, her smile a lot wider and warmer when she turned to the happy couple. "Rhodey, Maria, congratulations. We'll leave you alone." 

"Thank you." There were universes of gratitude in Rhodey's two syllables and Pepper took Tony's elbow in an iron grip. 

"So you're telling me my best friend just got engaged?" 

Three voices spoke as one. "Yes."

Tony's jaw dropped. "My best friend just got engaged!" Turning, he located a waiter who was staring warily at the scene. "Garçon, champagne please! Oh, what the hell, my best friend got engaged, champagne for everyone!" 

There was another round of applause and once again, Rhodey dropped his head and squeezed the bridge of his nose. Pepper felt sorry for him and Tony used her momentary distraction to slip her grip, grab a chair and pull it up beside Rhodey. 

"So," he said, "as your potential best man, I'm thinking..."

Three voices didn't let him finish. "NO!"


End file.
